A Study Of English Learning Anxiety Of Senior High Students In Rural Areas

With the development of our society, almost all parents and students have realized the importance of English learning. As a matter of fact, excellent English ability has been a necessary condition for students to be admitted to a key university and to get an ideal job. So they attach more importance to students’ English learning. Students in rural areas are required to have English courses just as students do in more developed areas. But their English learning environment is not as good as that of students in urban area. Their poor growth environment has been reminding them that being admitted to a key university is the only way to change their fate, which puts them under great pressure. And most of them began learning English when they were in junior high school, which is much later than students in urban area. Due to their poor basis in English, family environment, poor academic environment and introverted personality, many of them are suffering English learning anxiety. Besides, some students’ parents spend most of their time working far away from their homes. These students has been lacking enough care for their parents since they were young, which makes them apt to have mental problems. Therefore, it is quite necessary for people to pay more attention to this group. In recent years, researches on English language anxiety have increased in China. However, empirical researches on students’English learning anxiety in rural senior high schools are limited. Based on this, this study chooses some of the students from rural areas in the No.1 middle school of Guangshui to have a questionnaire survey and interview in order to answer the following questions:(1)What’s the overall situation of the English learning anxiety and what types of anxiety exist in rural high school students and what effect does it have on English learning?(2)What factors cause the anxiety of students in rural areas when they learn English?(3) What measures can be taken to reduce students’anxiety in English learning?Based on Horwitz’s foreign language classroom anxiety scale and with the students’ information provided by some headteachers, we make a study on the No.1 middle school in Guangshui. We selected 100 students from rural areas as the research subjects. According to subjects’points in the questionnaire, the first five and the last five students on the score list would be interviewed. The results of the questionnaire and interview are as follows:(1)The phenomenon is universal that the students in rural areas are suffering a relatively high level of English learning anxiety. English learning anxiety mainly includes communication apprehension, fear of negative evaluation, test anxiety, lack of self-confidence and so on.(2)English learning anxiety has different effects on student’s English ability of listening, speaking, reading and writing, and all those effects are negative.(3)The factors that influence students’ anxiety are various, including school and teacher factors, student factors and family factors. School factors mainly include too many tests, inadequate use of multi-media, unscientific evaluation and large capacity of classroom. Factors produced in the learning process include the unnatural connection between junior textbooks and senior textbooks, improper learning tasks, improper ways of assessments, being laughed at by classmates and so on. Student factors mainly include personalities of students in rural areas and leftover students’ characteristics. Family factors mainly include parents’ education background, their views on education and so on.Based on the results of the research, suggestions are put forward to reduce the anxiety and support English teaching effect in rural senior high schools...